Mercedes on top in hybrid era, but which team is on P2?

Mercedes has been lord and master in the hybrid era of Formula 1 that began in 2014. But over the eight years that have been driven in this era, the ratio between Red Bull Racing and Ferrari is particularly close. When it comes to podiums achieved, Red Bull only just wins.

Red Bull Racing pulls off P2 in hybrid era

In 2022, a major new set of regulations will be introduced in F1. The hybrid era is not over yet, the F1 cars will continue to drive with the extra electric motor, but a new phase in F1 seems to be starting. The cards can be shuffled again, as it were. Looking back at eight seasons with hybrid engines Mercedes is the undisputed winner; Red Bull Racing follows and in third place is Ferrari.

Mercedes has scored 232 podiums since 2014. The team did so with Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Valtteri Bottas. All those years the team also managed to take the constructors' title, only this year they did not take the drivers' title. The battle between the teams for P2 in the hybrid era looks to be particularly exciting. Over eight years, Red Bull is on 102 podiums and Ferrari on 100.

Verstappen takes almost fifth of total podiums

In the first part of the era, it was Red Bull that was in hot pursuit of Ferrari and Mercedes, that slowly turned around until Ferrari dropped to the middle of the pack in 2020 and 2021. In 2021, Max Verstappen had a phenomenal year, grabbing eighteen podiums and almost a fifth of Red Bull's total podiums of the last eight years.

In Abu Dhabi, Carlos Sainz managed to grab the 100th podium for Ferrari in this era. Of course, that didn't bring the team any closer to Red Bull, as Verstappen won there and took his title. Behind Ferrari comes Williams in fourth place with 16 podiums. You'd almost forget it, but the team was often 'best of the rest' until 2016 with Bottas and Felipe Massa behind the wheel. McLaren records fifth place with ten podiums.